Maintaining a modern brand image can be tricky, especially in a world where trends disappear faster than they appear. Fortunately, rebranding can be an option to keep the look and feel of your business fresh and one step ahead of your competitors. Plus, when done right, it can help you reach an even wider audience and increase your sales dramatically.
However, while rebranding is an exciting venture for any business, it can also be incredibly painstaking. In fact, figuring out the right time to rework the look and feel of your company can prove to be quite a cumbersome task. Luckily, you don’t have to do that work all by yourself!
This article has been designed to answer some of the most common questions you might have regarding rebranding. So keep reading if you want to learn the ins and outs of this interesting and efficient marketing process.
What Is Rebranding and What Does It Entail?
Generally speaking, rebranding is the process of reshaping the way people perceive your products, services or company. More often than not, it involves the reworking of your brand’s name, tagline, logo, visual identity, and marketing collateral. However, rebranding is very complex and usually requires a lot of effort and insight.
For starters, you’ll need to research your current brand perceptions, both internally and externally. Data gathered from this phase will give you valuable insights that you can use to correctly reposition your brand according to your consumers’ needs.
Once you feel like you’ve got an idea of how to handle the rebranding based on your data, you’ll be able to proceed to the identity phase. There, you’ll need to reimagine your visual and verbal identities. More specifically, the former involves your company’s logos, typography, colours and photography, while the latter refers to names, messaging and tag lines. This process culminates with a company website and marketing collateral redesign, which you’ll introduce during the last phase of rebranding, called brand activation.
When Should I Rebrand My Company?
As noted earlier, rebranding takes a lot of time and effort. It also carries risks for companies of all sizes. Thus, you’ll need to carefully analyse your business in order to find the perfect opportunity to undergo this process. But while the timing differs for every company, there are a few signs that might warrant a total rebranding:
Similar Visual Identities
It’s actually common for some businesses to have similar visual identities, such as logos or colour schemes, to one another. But, when your company resembles another one a bit too much, you might actually cause a lot of confusion amongst your audience.
What’s even worse is that you may also face legal problems, as many brands are looking for opportunities to sue their competition. That’s why it’s best to distance your visual identity from that of other companies when you notice these problems.
Company Growth
Let’s be honest — experiencing any growth in your company is amazing, no matter if it involves increasing the number of employees or the overall profit. However, growth can also warrant a rebrand.
For instance, if you feel like you’ve surpassed the original scope of your products or have expanded your influence, you might want to consider refreshing your brand. That way, potential customers will have a better understanding of your identity and offering. It will also help avoid situations where people associate your brand with only a specific product or service, which tends to limit your growth potential.
Lack of Growth
Are your sales stagnating or even declining? Then perhaps it’s time to reconsider your branding. One great way to do that is to use cross-comparison. Take a look at your competitors and see what they are doing differently.
Do they have more attractive logos, slogans or overall visual identities? If so, you might want to rebrand your company accordingly. Keep in mind that, while you shouldn’t imitate other companies, taking inspiration from their success can at least point you in the right direction.
Outdated Branding
Although trends repeat themselves once in a while, you can’t just wait until your old visual identity becomes relevant again. As a result, you should consider regularly replacing your typefaces, colour schemes or similar design elements. That should be enough to keep your brand fresh without having to invest in a total overhaul and risk alienating existing customers. Plus, it will also show people that you’re running a business willing to improve and update itself according to trends.
Functional and Aesthetic Disconnect
Finally, you need to understand that your logo, website, and other physical attributes of your brand are incredibly important. They make up the embodiment of your company and should be used by potential customers to quickly figure out what kind of business you are running.
But sometimes, as your company evolves, it might cause disconnects between what it offers and what its branding suggests. If that happens, you’ll need to do a rebranding in order to prevent confusion and avoid pushing existing customers away.
Related content:
3 Important Factors to Consider for Successful Rebranding
So, Is Rebranding Worth the Effort?
Even though rebranding takes time and dedication, we believe that it’s worth the effort in the long run. Sure, you’ll have to find the ideal moment to start the process. But once you’ve refreshed your company, you’ll enjoy some great benefits, like increased growth and better brand awareness. So, if you’re looking for a way to evolve your business, rebranding might be right up your alley!
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The basics of rebranding are in the sections above. However, if you want to find out even more, you can give GoPromotional a call at 0800 0148 970 or simply email us today. We can talk about any topic related to rebranding and help you find your way around it all.
